Electronic devices such as computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular telephones, laptops, fax machines, printers, and other devices may include devices that provide both wireless local area network (WLAN) communication and Bluetooth wireless communication. Once communication links are established, WLAN and Bluetooth links share a common frequency spectrum. Both wireless protocols share the same 2.4 GHz radio frequency band. Sharing the same frequency band creates a significant potential for interference. Interference between a Bluetooth link and a WLAN link results in lowered data throughput for both links. One solution to address the interference is to separate a Bluetooth antenna and a WLAN antenna. Bluetooth is a short-range wireless link so the separation may reduce the interference. Interference is reduced to an insignificant level when the Bluetooth and WLAN antennas are more than two meters apart.
Antenna separation is not always possible. The problem of interference is particularly acute in emerging applications such as voice-over-WLAN (VoWLAN) on laptop computers, mobile phones and PDAs, where both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi operate simultaneously in the same device. A better way to reduce Bluetooth and WLAN interference is desired.